G1en's 95% race car 5% stickers Zed build

[davey_83]

If Carlsberg made thread updates 

 

Such a small mod but doesn't the gearshift extended really help? I've removed it a couple times and lasted not even a day before putting it back on haha 

Edited March 5, 2018 by davey_83

[Lumby101]

Good read mate, nice work so far!

[Tom_K]

Wow, great work!

[Kieran O'Quick]

Hope they don't park us together - that shiny car will put mine to shame

 

Looking forward to seeing and hearing another Zed up there - you'll have a blast.

 

[Tom_K]

Really interesting work.
I'm a user of Bilthamber stuff; how do you find the difference between the UB and UC?

[G1en]

I like the UB as you can see where it is applied so when i look under the car you are safe in the knowledge its protected. Some debris/grit does seem to stick to it but as long as its coated it should be fine. The UC is supposed to be very similar but clear. I did the suspension mainly and bolts/nuts with this. Too early to tell if if makes a long term difference but going by the reviews it should do. 

Got both of those plus more available on the website from end of next week. 

[G1en]

Time for another update, Sunday 3rd June saw my first competitive attempt at Harewood Hillclimb and glad to say man and machine are back in one piece which unfortunately was not the case for the guy next to me in the paddock and his Fiesta ST.

So following on from previously, I entered the March practice day at Harewood. It was 1 degree celcious, damp track to start with and I was sat at the startline with road tyres, although MPSS which I thought would suffice, it soon became apparent that a cold day with cold tyres and 300+ HP was not a good mix to start racing. At the first corner I was on the grass both sides before the 80/20 rule saved me from binning it. that's 80% luck, 20% skill for anyone wondering. As the day went on I think we got 6 runs in with me only posting 2 times of note, both in the 73's The rest were spent 360ing out of corners as the grip levels were way less than I was expecting, the banning of any tyre warming stops you from getting any sort of heat into the tyres. So I came away having enjoyed myself but also mighty frustrated as the money that had been spent on the car had seemingly vanished into smoke and rendered useless if you have little grip. New tyres had to be sought out and put on before a competitive round as my competitive streak and ego (and possibly the car) would not survive another shot at the hill in current trim.

 

Picture below of my Zed next to fellow Zed owner @Kieran O'Quick at practice day in March

 

 

So onto google I went and also asked the advice of our great forum what semi-slick tyre I should put on and like you would expect there are a multitude of views and opinions so finding no definitive answer I opted for a set of these from Demon Tweeks:

 

 

Nankang AR-1 Relatively cheap compared to some of the  other well known tyres, new to the market and aimed at maximum dry performance, don't even start the car in the wet type of tyre. They certainly look the dogs danglies IMO seemed much lighter in weight than the MPSS I took off (the smaller sidewall and tread depth may account for some of that) so a possible advantage there.

 

I then did some Man Maths and worked out that I still had no camber adjustment on the from as I was still on stock arms so @ZMANALEX helped me out with some used Eibach adjustable arms. I now should be sponsored by Eibach I have so much of their stuff on the car. And with the arms and new tyres, I took another little trip to Bram Racing (local to me) to get a full Geo setup done again the week before Japfest. (I was on the reserve list for the first Harewood event as well the following week)

 

 

The car had always felt great on turn in but very tail happy and its only when you look at setup and tweek things you realise why. I had toe out both at front and rear so this was changed back to neutral at front and slight toe in at rear to help launches and traction out of corners, the rear anti-roll bar was softened to help rear traction, the front ant-roll bar was stiffened to help turn in, the front camber was increased to -2 minutes (still not sure if there is a difference between minutes and degrees) to help front traction and turn in and the rear camber was kept at -1.5 minutes to help launch off the line and a wider contact patch. In theory it sounded good but like anything, you have to try it to know if you like it.

 

Before and after printout:

 

 

So armed with new tyres and a new setup I thought the best thing to do would be to find a nice quiet road and do some launches. It was evident straight away that the grip level of semi-slicks is on another planet compared to road tyres, no matter how good a road tyre you have. I say this because I assumed there would be a marginal grip level increase at the expense of longevity but was quite amazed at the extra grip (again, must state this is a dry track tyre, rather than an all weather track tyre) I was having fun then this happened:

 

 

 

I went to shift from 1st to 2nd and crunch, would not go into gear, clutch pedal on the floor. I managed to force it into a gear and tootled along until I could pull over with enough space for cars to get past. A phonecall to Mitz resulted in the possibility of the slave cylinder going or clutch fluid boiled or both. The clutch fluid was RBF600 and was boiled, with the slave being internal, it was impossible know if it had gone BUT it had been upgraded a year earlier as part of the extreme clutch kit so I was hoping it was just the fluid. I left the car 2 hours, still would not go in gear when started but would if ignition was off so bump it off in first and started the 7 or so miles back home crawling along at 10mph. Things did get scary when I had to get on a dual A road and keep looking behind me as cars braked from 70 to 20 as they saw the hazards on. Well it got back to local garage and by this time I tried the other gears and all engaged so luckily it just seemed the fluid.

 

I ordered some RBF660 this time with a boiling point of a zillion degrees so hopefully that should put up with the abuse from now, clutch was bled, I got the car back the day before Japfest and it was filthy from the garage. It had to be cleaned even though it was 30d and scorching sun, every detailing rule was ignored but it got finished and still looked just about there.

 

 

So off to Japfest we went, Great show, great forum stand and great weather. I was next to a rare Red Zed and had a good chat to the owner who name escapes me but even though there were just 2 Red Zeds at the show I think most people ended up going home with necks the same colour. I never even took a photo of my car so this one below is courtesy of @valy I think, plus ramdon pic of one the drift cars in the BDC, awesome spectacle of cars going sideways at 100mph into a corner. Massive thank you to @andy james for organising and everyone else involved.

 

 

Sadly I missed out on the May Harewood event as I must have left it too late so all attention was then focused to the June 3rd event which I had a Definate entry for. A few little fast road runs were done to make sure the clutch, fluid and box were all working as they should and they were but I have developed a strong thud (or something hitting metal) noise over bumps like the suspension is bottoming out (it may be) but I have jumped on the suspension with all my weight and cant get it to make any noise, puzzled as to what it might be, possibly some worn bushes that haven't been replaced or engine mounts? will need to get it checked over at next service. Anyway onto weekend just gone and turned up at Harewood with 10 other competitors alongside me, was expecting 11 but unfortunately Kierens 350 decided it didn't like his "new" second hand propshaft and blew it up on the way to the event, felt gutted for him but he did turn up later to watch the action.

 

First practice run was a 72, slightly quicker than previous but I was still driving as though on road tyres and it was apparent by the end of the run that there was so much more speed I could take round the corners. So practice run 2, I got brave and pushed a little, with a bit of tyre squeal on a couple of the corners and bang, straight to a 68. That's much more like it. Feeling that I could now start tweeking and experimenting with various braking points and corner entry it was onto the first of 3 timed runs that count. I wanted to put a banker run in as rain was forcast for the afternoon and possible thunderstorms which if materialised meant I probably would not have ventured out. So a safe 68.2 was registered (tenth quicker than prev) then it was lunch, then the second timed run, where I went for a mega start but just wheelspun the tyres for 50 metres so resulted in it being a few tenths slower, in fact everyone was slower so possibly the drop in air/track temp and everyone just eaten may have played a part. So onto third timed run and the rain had kept away. Once again started poorly (albeit better than prev two) but went as fast as I dare given my lack of track time/knowledge and got over the line in 67.8. Which I was pleased with for my first competitive try and even more pleased when it was confirmed I had finished in 3rd place in our class and a momento of the day in the shape of a crystal glass awaited me at presentation time. 

 

For info, the Class record time is 66 seconds dead, 

 

I need to find another 1-1.5 sec to be challenging for the wins, there is possibly another 0.5 sec to be had from the start and second sector ( I consistently had slowest get aways in the class) then the rest will have to come from perfecting braking points and entry/exit speeds/lines of corners. We will have to see if the car or me are capable but onwards and upwards as they say. It may come down to how much I want to risk trashing the car!

 

Rear end shot below from the weekend with new Nankang stickers hiding the scratches and adding 3hp each:

 

 

And my 3rd place trophy to cherish forever (or until one of the kids knocks it)

 

 

Thanks for Reading

 

 

 

 

 

[davey_83]

Yes get in!! Well done fella 

[ATTAK Z]

Fantastic and a good write up too ...

 

 

oh and by the way, there are 60 minutes in 1 degree FYI

[G1en]

Thanks @ATTAK Z 

Brad at Bram did explain to me about the minutes so -1.30 is in fact -1.5deg as a decimal (30 being half of 60 minutes)

 

Its still all just numbers until you feel the car on track, what I will say is it much less tail happy than before and more prone to understeer.

This is great for me at present as I can keep pushing the car and tyres to the edge of traction and when it starts to slide just let off where as before the front really gripped with the back end all over the place wanting to swap ends. It prob wont be the fastest setup and I will probably change it again in the future but that's the good thing about having adjustable parts now and really feeling what the car does, I can get to understand what each change may do and test it out. 

[Kieran O'Quick]

Car looked and sounded great up there. You properly hooked it up and revved all the way through the buildings section - represented the Zed brilliantly. Just 5 runs in and only beaten by a Sunbeam with crazy HP/ton and a sorted M3 with a very experienced driver.

Looking like you'll smash that 66 second record. 

Hopefully I'll have moved it a bit lower before that : )

[G1en]

Just got back from second competitive hillclimb day at Harewood and what a day!

 

Glorious day weather wise has as been the case for several months now, its refreshing to know that this community of 3.5/3.7l V6s' have helped contribute to global warming and the superb weather we have at present. To think, when we are all driving electric cars in 20 years and it does nothing but rain and snow we will all look back at the good old days.

 

Anyway, sarcasm aside, onto the Hillclimbing. Harewood had laid down a fresh tarmac surface and the organisers were expecting records to be broken. I got there early along with @Kieran O'Quick and we did a track walk to find out we were still none the wiser as to how the track would behave, there was a sticky patch on the left hand side of the start straight so at least we knew where to point off the line. There were also new kerbs (quite high) and bollards to make it slightly different from previous forms.

 

Practice 1 was eventful for a lot of competitors as we suddenly found out that grip levels were not as good as previous and there was plenty of tyre squeal, squirming and spinning. I started with a 69.54 (prev best from last time was 67.82)

Practice 2 I concentrated on sliding as little as possible and being clean if not exactly fast, came in at 68.02 so just a couple of tenths off.

Timed 1 - wanted a banker run as we had been delayed in morning due to so many offs and spins and it was looking like we may only get 2 timed runs. With everyone still complaining about the new surface aka lewis Hamilton. I put in a 67.78 which was ok and gave me a good starting run (2nd pos in class)

Timed 2 - From watching others it was noticeable times were coming down as the new track rubbered in so I pushed a little harder and ended up with a 67.11. very acceptable as the record is/was 66.00 and anything in 66s is quick so not far off at all and I was complaining of understeer in the long right handers. I had set the car up to understeer slightly but it was too much and I was losing heaps of time by having to slow and coast round the two corners. this may be down to the 235 tyres up front compared to the 265 rears, possibly also the hard anti-roll bar setting at front compared to soft rear and also same tyre pressures all round. Things I can change later for next time. Also worth noting I had been running 30psi all round for the 2 practice and 1st timed runs but when I heard what pressures everyone else was running I dropped to 28psi all round which did seem grippier and showed in the time.

 

So onto Timed run 3 - We were allowed a final run by the organisers which everyone was happy about as either people were getting faster with each run or still adapting to the new surface, either way we all wanted another go. I went into full attack mode and was determined to get into the 66s' to finish the day and compete with Kieran (350z) and Terry (Lotus) who had both got into the 66s' on previous run so I was lying third. The pressures were dropped to 27 rear 26 front. The car was superb although I was sliding round most corners and had to correct several times but it felt quick, apart from one dodgy gear change mid run which cost me a tenth. crossed the line and could not believe my eyes, not into the 66s' but 65.99 breaking the class record!

 

My elation was short lived though as Terry then came in after me with 65.8 and Kieran behind him in 65.5 It was like formula one where everyone leaves it late and the times just come down the later you are, so the joy of breaking the class record to finishing 3rd and as there were only 9 in the class, not even a trophy this time. Anyway, can't be to disheartened as the record is now with another 350z (for now). We were doing the 350 proud. It looks like the class will be very competitive with others missing from today. Word of note to say, the rest of the field I think were a good 2 seconds or more behind the top 3.

 

Below: the Zed enjoying the sun!

Below: Times from today on the right and previous meeting on the left to compare.

 

And Finally, this is the video of my final run of the day 65.99 seconds

Disclaimer: Its a £40 Chinese go-pro, its held in place with Velcro and tie wraps, its mounted too low, it takes a while to get going as I don't know how to trim videos, there is some Yorkshire bloke (aka me) talking Yorkshire at the end, the date stamp is completely wrong, its the first video I have ever uploaded so may not work, why are you still reading this, click the link and give it a like even though its crap!

 

 

[da.murf]

just read through this thread. some very very nice updates. car sounds great in the video too.

 

what induction and exhaust are you running and if you don't mind me asking where did you get the extension bar for the gear knob? toyed with one myself but feared the throw would then be very long??

 

Nice driving in the final video, love seeing the old 'heavy GT car 350z' get thrown about and beating the more 'nimble' competition 

[Stevie-Boy]

Great video, I always think of these cars as being quite heavy but yours certainly moves!

[G1en]

Cheers guys. The extension bar is from ebay. Its an epman aluminium 3” only cost around £10 and makes the changes much slicker. The car is running cobra hi-flow cats and exhaust with k&n drop in filters. Has been mapped at horsham. 

The car is very nimble, makes a big difference with the polybushes, coilovers, anti-roll bars etc and being setup by professionals. 

Its in the longer corners i pay for the extra weight, car understeers. But this is partly due to setup and front tyre width, both could be tweeked to make it more nuetral, just needed a base where i could find the limit and go from there. Trail braking and using the kaaz lsd to power out makes up for some of the time lost to the lighter cars during cornering then the rest can be made up with the v6 grunt!

[davey_83]

The ally shifter extension is bliss, every time I've removed mine is back on for the next drive haha.

 

Decent footage for the cheaper action camera!! Looks good.

[G1en]

*********UPDATE*********

Harewood Hillclimb Third Competitive Event

 

Another competition just finished and this time a 2nd place!

 

Not much done car wise since last update, very busy at work (both jobs) kids to look after, guy with violin playing in corner of room as I have no time to kick him out, you know the score....

 

What I did decide to do on Friday night (yesterday) was make a bracket for the Chinese camera out of some aluminium/brackets/bolts I had in the garage, it looks good enough but the problem is, as you will tell from the video below, the seat must shake/vibrate when driving so it ends up shaking the camera. I will look for another solution for next time. I also learnt that if you leave the camera running for 3 hours, you get a recording of the bonnet then the camera dies so I didn't get to record my fastest run of the day but my fastest practice run is uploaded to youtube which was still better than my quickest run last time.

 

Anyway, I was glad I made the bracket for another reason. I decided to check oil etc and start the car, leave it running for 10 mins to check everything was ok. In hindsight this was a good idea as after 5 minutes the belts started squeeling like a pig, I opened the bonnet to find coolant dripping onto the belts and the belts slipping and spraying it all over. A simple top up the reservoir and tighten the top hose clamp was all that was required. But if I had just driven it to the track, I may have not heard the squeeling on the motorway, lost half my coolant, overheated, belts fooked up everything they control, car wrecked, zombie apocalypse started and so on, so the pre checks were a great decision.

 

Onto today and the Hillclimbing. It was a very mixed bag but pleasing overall. I will briefly talk through the runs:

 

Practice Run 1 (26psi all round) 66.63 seconds - Considering my best time prev was 65.99, this was a very pleasing first run of the day as no-one ever sets a great time first run, track/tyres/temps all cold and you are feeling your way round, exploring the grip, braking points etc so to post a 66.63 was a good start.

 

Practice Run 2 (30psi all round) 65.32 seconds - Now I am posting the tyre pressures as Kieren and myself (and others) were having a debate on whats the optimum pressure to run, now this will vary from car to car, tyre to tyre, track conditions ect. but on a dry day in the Zed with Nankang AR-1 tyres, Kieren thought 30 psi was best and that's what he was running so I gave this a go and ended up with a fantastic time which would have broke the class record (I think) but practice runs don't count, so armed with this data I immediately went back to 27psi for the first timed run as in my head that would be better as the track warmed up and rubbered in.

 

1st Timed Run (27psi all round) 66.52 - It felt like a completely different car, sliding and understeering on every corner, lighting up the rears out of the corners. I had a big moment at what is known as orchard (see video below) Video finishes early as camera died, but I was pushing as I had the never achieved 64 seconds in my thought process now, I put the errors down to me simply overdriving the car and pushing it too far, so I was very frustrated after that and needed to put a banker run in next as due to crashes time was running out and it was looking like only 2 timed runs.

 

2nd Timed Run (27psi all round) 65.84 seconds - A safer run as I concentrated on being clean rather that late braking etc. but the car was still sliding all over and just not the same grip as practice 2, it felt like I was going backwards but at least this time got me into 2nd behind @Kieran O'Quick in his 350z (his quickest was 64.80 at this stage) So I decided to put the pressures back to 30 all round for the final run which luckily we just had time for.

 

3rd Timed Run (30psi all round) 64.78 seconds - Car felt much easier to drive, less tyre squeeling and even now, its hard to comprehend that a few psi can make a second or more difference. I crossed the line to be in 1st place and yet another class record until...….. just like last time Kieren follows up 15 seconds later with a 64.57 to take the win and class record straight back. A big well done mate, people check out his youtube video (posted by Alex Dunn) I even sensed a big sigh of relief on his part, so once again the 350z boys are leading the way, 1st and 2nd I now have a crystal wine glass to add to my tumbler. If you see a case of them for sale on ebay, that's probably Kieren selling them with the amount he has won.

 

Time Sheets below, All my times with sector times on the right, class times on the left:

 

Photos below of Our class and the wax and shine race car in all its glory

 

And finally, video below of me nearly binning it as its more interesting than a smooth run.

 

 

That's all folks

[davey_83]

We'll Done Glen!! 2nd is a great result and 1st no doubt will be next. Car looks really smooth and planted. Nice 350z lockout of the top spots fellas.

 

You juggling loads fella, you need a day to be 30hrs at least lol

Edited August 5, 2018 by davey_83

[Kieran O'Quick]

Yeah, it was a bit flippin' close for comfort that. I probably wouldn't have pushed so hard in that last run but I just knew you were going to post a quick one. I saw you waiting at parc ferme as I crossed the line so was dead chuffed to see them wave you by as my time popped up. Sorry about that and thanks for all the rubber you laid down for me. 

 

Another event, another second quicker - on the limit (and over it) all day. That 1st win is going to feel extra sweet when it comes. Guess I'll have to try to get to 63 before you..

 

Cheers for a great day's racing (from a slightly larger wine glass...cough )

 

[G1en]

Time for another update. August is a busy month for most people and for me it was no exception. A well deserved family holiday to Majorca was followed on return by a trip to the JPS Coventry show. Been the last 2 years and it always has some great cars on show. Decided to fit my "race" steering wheel the day before as it looked simple enough but as you may have seen on another thread, ended up taking me 4 hours at a garage, anyway now its on, looks much better:

 

So after a last minute hick-up, I headed down to Coventry next morning, a very early start from Leeds, and as usual and again you may have seen on another thread, the cars were great, always great to meet up with fellow members old and new, pic below of my car and also @valy who managed to get a spot in the main hall away from the "pigpen"

 

 

Onto this weekend, and just got back from another hillclimb, this one was a washout and rain the entire day, now I have read and heard it from the company themselves that the AR-1 tyres are not for the wet and I can confirm they seem to be far worse than the R888R others were running, pic below of mine and Kierans Zeds in the crappy weather.

 

 

Onto the details, first practice run, ended up in the gravel trap at what is called farmhouse, went to brake and gave myself more room than usual due to weather but the car just locked up and would not turn at all, headed straight to the gravel trap and spent the next hour trying to get around half a ton of gravel dislodged from underneath the car, had a warning from marshalls as I was still "gritting" the track during next run. I initially thought I just was carrying way too much speed but the ABS warning light was on as I was being towed out so possibly some sort of brake system failure contributed, its a sort of excuse anyway. Brakes seemed fine rest of day though. Afterwards a very steady practice run, then lunch.

 

After lunch was the first of 2 timed runs, and this is where it really went Pete Tong. tried to give it as much as I dare in ever worsening conditions, in hindsight I realise my car is just not setup for the wet (at all) the back end stepped out when changing gear up the final straight and I went straight into the barrier, I feared the worse as it was a big impact but carried on and after inspection from the marshalls/scrutineer and lots of others we were amazed the dame seemed minimal. The rear wheel took the brunt of the impact as luckily my SSR wheels stick out just slightly more than the bodywork. The wheel needs a full refurb and the alignment is all off but other than that, there are only a couple of marks/scrapes where the paint has come off where the rear arch and rear bumper meet. All the suspension components and tie rods etc seem ok but will need a proper inspection when I get it re-aligned. need to decide whether to refurb the one wheel and it being a slightly different colour or do the lot and have a change?

 

Final times of the day, me being car 75, way down the list and 16 seconds behind my dry time! as you can se, I spent more time visiting the scenery than posting times so will have to get some dedicated wet tyres for next season.

 

Finally, my video is uploaded of the run I smacked the barrier, if anyone has any idea why it broke loose (possibly the diff, poss some standing water or oil?) who knows.

(may contain a strong word!)

 

 

[350Butcher]

Fair play to you for committing in such horrible conditions! As long as there's no standing water these track day tyres still hang on better than "normal" road tyres.......not that I speak for these particular Nankangs as I've not used them

 

Shame about the prang.....hope it does fix up OK and there's no surprises when you closer inspect everything. Looks like you just dropped the clutch a bit too harshly engaging 3rd and shocked the drivetrain enough to break traction.

[Kieran O'Quick]

Mine was bucking on the gear change at that bit there in the dry. It never used to with the standard clutch and fly. Made me very cagey in the wet. There's a slight crest there and it isn't quite straight. 

Must say, I feared the worst when they said over the radio that you'd had some of the barrier. Phew, now let's hope for dry weather in September and go 63 hunting. 

[rabbitstew]

Good stuff! Although braver man than me doing a hill climb in the wet.

[350Butcher]

7 hours ago, Kieran O'Quick said:

Mine was bucking on the gear change at that bit there in the dry. It never used to with the standard clutch and fly. Made me very cagey in the wet. There's a slight crest there and it isn't quite straight.

 

As the original clutch/flywheel assembly weighs so much more it maintains more rotational inertia which smooths the revs during gear changes. As the flywheel is dual-mass it also cushions the drivetrain from the engine during gear changes too (hence why the gearbox rattles when you fit single mass...no cushion)

 

The viscous diff is also "softer" than a plate lsd.

 

Throw in a slight crest there too to make the car go light.

 

7 hours ago, Kieran O'Quick said:

Phew, now let's hope for dry weather in September and go 63 hunting. 

 

Hope you crack it!!

[G1en]

Cheers for the input, basically its what i thought, the car really isnt setup for the wet and my zero minutes wet track driving combined made the outcome pretty predictable, but i do need to get to grips with it so am getting some spare wheels and “wet tyres” to at least get a competitive “safe” time next time. Its all one big learning curve this first season, need to check nothing is broke/bent when i get the alignment done but fingers crossed i had a lucky escape and gives me the chance to refurb the wheels in another colour, erm... what to go for?